Graphics memory (VRAM) usage and conclusion

Graphics memory (VRAM) usage

How much graphics memory does the game utilize versus your monitor resolution with different graphics cards and respective VRAM sizes? Well, we already addressed this bit of course. But let's have a look at the chart below. The listed MBs used in the chart are the maximum measured utilized graphics memory during the test run. 

With a 4GB graphics card, you'll notice your VRAM is nearly or 100% filled flat out full, then memory gets emptied chunk by chunk bit and then filled again. Overall, the game will load up as much as it can for caching purposes in a very dynamic fashion. 

Up-to Full HD (1920x1080) in fact any ~4 GB graphics card of decent caliber should do the job well. Likely 4 GB or more should be sufficient for 2560x1440. If you want to play Ultra quality with Ultra HD as preferred monitor resolution, 6GB or better is always advised but in this game, not needed. The title basically is a fill most you can type of game. E.g. it buffers as much as need and as it would like to.
 

 Concluding

If you are into single player games, Battlefront II is a nice step forward. Actually, even a huge step forward, although incredibly linear. EA at the moment is under a heap of scrutiny and criticisms as the game is loaded with in-game purchases (loot box), and if you like to play as Darth Vader, you need the 80 USD/EUR deluxe edition. It's nothing new I'm, afraid, EA as always will get away with it as they continuously push forward the threshold, once they pass it they'll back down a little. But yes, titles like these are massive cash-cows.

The game itself then. The tested PC version looks OK but is just that? Especially the first mission, when you walk around in the spaceship, it's all flat and dull with mediocre texture. Once you arrive at level two, as shown and where tested for this article, things start to look better, but at ultra quality mode in Ultra HD, I still was not impressed.  Overall, as stated things are linear and it is your typical shooter really. System specs wise, the title seems to like faster-clocked procs. I still need to check into it, but Ryzen should be fine really. 8GB system RAM isn't really enough with the better settings; you want 12GB at a minimum which also is recommended, so that makes sense.  The vast majority of the game plays with proper framerates though, even with a somewhat older and mainstream card. Overall the game feels smooth in game-play, nothing negative to mention there. FCAT/Frametime plots look reasonably good as well. As always, we do hope you like this little test as it will be an indicator of overall performance. All modern graphics cards will run the game at Full HD without any issue. There is just no need to drop down in images quality modes too massively and heck, that's where we as PC gamers need to be. For the single game players out there, the story-line of the single-player campaign is actually fairly nice if you are into the genre, but as stated very linear. 

We'll update with more graphics cards once the DRM protections allows us to do so, EA allows for 4 or 5 hardware changes per 24 hours ... we'll also look into upcoming driver performance differences as well as CPU scaling on different processors.

Small tip -  given what we are seeing in perf, we'd advise anyone to run the game in DX11 mode which is faster and does not offer better image quality.

Addendum 16-11-17:

• Added more graphics cards
• Added DirectX 11 vs DirectX 12 performance comparison
• The new 388.31 drivers do not further optimize GeForce graphics card performance, aside from the 1080/1080Ti and TitanXp in CPU bound 1920x1080, these numbers have been updated. The new driver also adds SLI compatibility.

Please do make sure you have installed the latest compatible graphics card driver, the new 17.11.2 or higher driver from AMD, as well as at least GeForce 388.31 or the newer drivers as these, have been optimized for the game. You can download the latest AMD Catalyst drivers here and the Nvidia GeForce drivers here.

- H.

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